The Andorian Incident
In the Vulcan vs. Andoria '' |image= |series= |production=40358-107 |producer(s)=Dawn Valazquez |story=Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and Fred Dekker |script=Fred Dekker |director=Roxann Dawson |imdbref= tt0572247 |guests=Jeffrey Combs as ' Commander Shran'. Bruce French as ' Vulcan Elder', Steven Dennis as ' Tholos', Jeff Ricketts as ' Keval', Richard Tanner as ' Vulcan Initiate' and Jamie McShane as ' Tactical Crewman' |previous_production=Terra Nova |next_production=Breaking the Ice |episode=ENT S01E07 |airdate=31 October 2001 |previous_release=Terra Nova |next_release=Breaking the Ice |story_date(s)=Late June 2151 . |previous_story=Terra Nova |next_story=Breaking the Ice }} =Summary= Captain Archer tells Sub-Commander T'Pol that he had found a remote outpost on a planet a few light years off their current heading, and that he would like to visit this 3000-year-old Vulcan monastery, called P'Jem. En route, T'Pol describes it as an ancient retreat, a place for kolinahr and peaceful meditation. She also explains the strict visit protocols—they should not speak to anyone unless spoken to first, nor touch any relics. Arriving at P'Jem, a Vulcan elder tries to send the away team away, but Archer notices the reflected form of an armed intruder. Although they manage to subdue him, they are quickly captured by a larger group of armed Andorian Imperial Guards, led by Commander Shran. Shran interrogates Archer, asking if they have brought more surveillance equipment for the Vulcans. The Andorians lock up the away team with the Vulcan monks, who explain that the Andorians, neighbors of Vulcan, believe that P'Jem holds a long-range sensor array, and the arrival of T'Pol and Enterprise has unfortunately amplified their suspicions. When Enterprise attempts to contact the away team, Shran warns them not to interfere and destroys their communicators. During interrogation, wrongly disbelieving Archer's protestations of ignorance, the Andorians beat him. Seeing Archer, the monks relent and take Commander Tucker to an ancient transmitter in the catacombs. After repairing the device, Archer manages to send a signal to Enterprise to tell them to wait. Soon, Lieutenant Reed and a security team transport into the tunnels, taking out most of the Andorians with explosive charges and phaser fire. Shran escapes into the Reliquary, where a fire-fight reveals a large modern door. Archer manages to open it, revealing a high-tech sensor chamber. With the Vulcan deception exposed, Archer lets the Andorians go with T'Pol's palm scanner as evidence of installation. Shran remarks that he is now in Archer's debt. =Errors and Explanations= Nitpicking # If the Vulcans and Andorians are supposed to live in neighbouring star systems, how and why would the Vulcans use a sensor array on a remote planet to spy on them? Perhaps placing the station at P'Jem allows the Vulcans to watch Andoria from a different angle. # Why doesn't anyone of the human Enterprise crew know anything about the Andorians who are neighbours and rivals of the Vulcans, especially when Reed and Sato are shown to have permanent access to the Vulcan database? Maybe certain parts of the database were declared off limits to non Vulcans, and removed from the version supplied to Enterprise. # The "transporting device" isn't only as fast as 200 years later, it can also transport at least three persons at once. Let's wait and see how many more will fit on the platform...It may not be possible to produce multi pad transporters at this point in history. Nit Central # supercooladdict on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 4:25 pm: Given the transport we see here, wouldn't it have made more sense (ie. safer) if they just beamed down some weapons to the captain, instead of risking the away team. I would think beaming down a few phase pistols and maybe some of the talked about stun grenades would take enable Archer and crew to hold things under control until the other shuttlepod made it to the surface. But then again, I'm not a master Starfleet tactician. Anything and/or anyone beamed down could be intercepted by the Andorians. # Also why don't we have a transporter operator. Given everything we saw in TOS and TNG, it seemed it was a very complex device that needed a trained operator, then here we get Hoshi operating it. Perhaps it’s not used often enough to justify having a dedicated operator, espically with such a relatively small crew. # Yasu on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 6:56 pm: Why didn't they just beam the Andorians off the planet while they were at it. That could increase the risk of the situation getting worse. # Spockania on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 6:59 pm: I thought Kolinar was a discipline, not a time; and wouldn't T'pol know if it was the time of Kolinar? Most earth monestaries use a calendar to calculate such things. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 2:59 am: Not necessarily. She may not have undergone the ritual herself yet. Besides, who says that there is a universal time for it, or that it even follows a specific schedule? Perhaps one of the monks, or a Vulcan visitor to P’Jem, has recently decided to undergo it, much as Spock tried to in ST TMP, but wasn’t ready. # Considering how far the Vulcans went to hide that array, shouldn't the big blastproof door have had a lock of any kind? They didn’t expect it to be discovered by any non Vulcans! # SMT on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 7:30 pm: In the manner of a true nitpicker, I must note Archer's poor grammar when he says "The data indicates …." 'Data' is plural, not singular (unless you mean the android). Then again, lots of humans make that mistake. Where is it written that this usage of the word data is a mistake? # SMT on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 7:49 pm: One more thing: The pre-show board mentions that the homeworld of the Andorians was called "Andor" in a DS9 episode. Here, though, T'Pol refers to it as "Andoria". SomeDude on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 8:08 pm: It's The Talax/Talaxia Syndrome… Steve Oostrom on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:44 pm: I doubt that the Andorians actually use that name for their planet. It is something different, and Andor might be a Vulcan term. As such, there might be a tendency to give the name some variations. Seniram 11:20, September 8, 2018 (UTC) Maybe it’s one of those ‘multiple versions of the same name’ scenario! # Mike Ram on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:21 pm: Shouldn't the Andorian see Archer looking at him in the reflection on the vase as well? LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 2:59 am: Not if he isn’t looking at the bowl, and it didn’t seem he was. # ScottN on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 10:32 pm: '' Given that the Terran and Andorian governments know that Vulcans can and do lie (from the events of this episode), how did the truism that "Vulcans don't lie" get spread so widely by Kirk's time? '''Their behavioural norms must have been substantially revised in the intervening period.' # Trike on Wednesday, October 31, 2001 - 11:47 pm: You have to question Archer's resolution, if even for just a second. He gives the Andorians the information because the Vulcans have violated a treaty, but how can any treaty give the Andorians the right to seize and search a Vulcan outpost? It appears both sides broke the treaty. Archer's resolution, I think, was very Kirk-like. He made up his own rules, and that supposedly made him right. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 2:59 am: It was very similar to Picard’s reaction to finding out about the phase cloak at the end of The Pegasus (TNG). Given Archer’s animosity towards Vulcans, and what he perceives as their arrogance and hypocrisy, his reaction is even more understandable. Members of a treaty OFTEN break that treaty with covert operations.''Seniram 11:20, September 8, 2018 (UTC)''For all we know, P’Jem could be in an area of space that the Andorians consider to be part of their territory. # Did I hear right that the monastery was 3,000 years old? If Surak's reformation was about 2,000 years ago, it even predates that. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 2:47 am: In Act 1, when the trio first approach the temple door, T’Pol says the temple is almost 3,000 years old. The Vulcan Time of Awakening was established in Gambit part II (TNG) to have occurred 2,000 years earlier, and Meld (VOY) indicated that it took at least 1,000 years to fully take hold. Both those episodes, as well as Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (TOS), All Our Yesterdays (TOS), and Sarek (TNG), indicated that Vulcan was ravaged by terrible wars, that Vulcans were not only passionate, but that Vulcan emotions were more violent than that of humans, that they used they’re telepathy as a weapon, that one of their holidays, Rumarie, featured orgies, etc. What use did the Vulcans have for such a temple almost a thousand years before the Time of Awakening? ''Seniram 11:20, September 8, 2018 (UTC)''The founders of the monastery were probably more spiritual than their contemporaries. # Man, Andorian scanners are pretty lousy if they can't pick up passageways behind walls. The walls could have been constructed in a way that blocks scans. # Reed is right to criticize landing-party procedures. There was no scheduled check-in time, they didn't scan the planet before landing and, if they're consistent with "Strange New World," they didn't check weather patterns, either. They may not be compulsory at this stage. # tjoe on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 12:36 am: I still don't understand why a delicate instrument like the transporter is located IN A HALLWAY!!!! That may be the only available space for it! # MarkN on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 1:23 am: The pre-show board mentions that the homeworld of the Andorians was called "Andor" in a DS9 episode. Here, though, T'Pol refers to it as "Andoria". Well, Vulcan was once called Vulcanus (um, right? Right? Someone please tell me I'm right!) in like the pilot or one of the earliest TOS eps. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 2:37 am: Vulcanus was used in the first few episodes of TOS. # LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 2:47 am: T’Pol tells Archer in Act 1 that the monks don’t have transmitters because "technology" distracts them from their spiritual pursuits. So how did T’Pol figure the Vulcans got out to this planet in the first place? Aren’t starships considered "technology"? The ships that delivered the monks probably leave as soon as the monks have been delivered to the monastery. # Rather than having Reed and two tactical officers risk themselves by beaming down at the end of Act 3, why not beam down a couple of armed hover drones controlled by the bridge crew? We already have remote unmanned mini spy planes being used by the military for reconnaissance today, and hell, Archer had an anti-gravity toy vehicle as a kid! Too risky – The Andorians could jam or manipulate the control signals. # During Archer and Trip’s struggle with the Andorian in the holding room in Act 4, why doesn’t T’Pol or any of the Vulcans nerve pinch the Andorian? Sure, the monks are against violence, but isn’t the whole point of the nerve pinch? The story goes, Leonard Nimoy invented the nerve pinch because he didn’t feel a logical character like Spock would stoop to using a karate chop on an opponent. And what about T’Pol? Why won’t she help her captain? The Andorians are struggling too much for T’Pol to reach the correct point to apply the pinch. # Does anyone think Shran, the Andorian leader, was a bit nonchalant at finally seeing the survey station? He’s in shock at having his suspicions proved correct! # Machiko Jenkins (Mjenkins) on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 10:12 pm: In the last shot where the shuttle was lifting off, was that the Andorian shuttle? Dialogue indicated that it was there in the area. If so, where was the Enterprise shuttle? If it was the Enterprise shuttle, does that mean that the Andorians had already left? Presumably they did - which leaves me to wonder when precisely the Enterprise landing party left the monastery. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, November 01, 2001 - 10:37 pm: It was clearly the Enterprise shuttle. I did assume the Andorians had already left, but the way it was edited, it did seem like the shot of the shuttle lifting off was right after the shot of Shran walking away from the survey station entrance. They should've used a dissolve between the two shots instead of a sharp cut. =Notes= Category:Episodes Category:Enterprise